The myths fear and awe concerning the aurora borealis

Trending Mythology and the Aurora Borealis Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, is a fascinating phenomenon that occurs around the Poles.

As evening passes to midnight and on to dawn, the folds of the curtain make fantastic decorations over the heavens, forming arcs, rays, and wreaths. The Lapps believed that the Aurora had magical powers; Lappish shaman drums often have runes showing the Aurora.

Variation in color is due to the type of gas particles colliding. What Causes the Aurora Borealis? Youths dance to the aurora. The moving lights were thought to be spirits playing ball games with the skull of a walrus.

The ends of the land and sea are bounded by an immense abyss, over which a narrow and dangerous pathway leads to the heavenly regions. Among the handsome young men whom she carried off as lovers were Orion and Tithonus.

View Holidays Imagine standing on a frozen lake just north of the Arctic Circle. The dancing of the children round and round caused the continually moving streamers and draperies of the aurora.

At higher altitudes miles oxygen produces the all-red auroras. The Romans called them "chasmata," the mouths of celestial caves. Many centuries ago, before science was even a part of our lives, strange phenomena were explained through myths and stories.

For example, some have thought that auroras are related to the reflections of icebergs. North America Centuries ago, human settlements were far less concentrated and we lived in far smaller and remoter communities with barely any communication with other tribes.

Even with the application of our most advanced scientific technologies, there is always more to learn. It is the period after being excited that causes the aurora borealis, because the atoms and molecules release energy in the form of light as they calm down and return to their original condition.

The Eskimos who lived on the lower Yukon River believed that the aurora was the dance of animal spirits, especially those of deer, seals, salmon and beluga. When the lights were in the sky, they would behave in a solemn manner and be respectful to the fires. According to one myth, her tears cause the dew as she flies across the sky weeping for one of her sons, who was killed by Achilles during the Trojan war.

One legend suggests that the lights were reflections or glow from the shields and armour of the Valkyrie, female warriors who would choose who may die in battle and who may live to fight another day.

In Estonia, legends connect the aurora to whales playing — and one even involves a crocodile. I use those images to pre-visualize the kinds of images that I want to make. Auroral sightings have been associated with bad omens, such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, What We Can Learn From The Ghostly Myths Behind The Northern Lights.

Sara Coughlin sparks the human imagination is the aurora borealis, their northern light myths on elements from their. Mythology and the Aurora Borealis Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, is a fascinating phenomenon that occurs around the Poles.

The dancing lights of the Aurora are actually the result of the collision between electrically charged particles from the Sun and the Earth’s atmosphere. The aurora is both beautiful and slightly uncanny in appearance, and has accordingly spawned myriad legends and myths.

Like the magnetic fields that inspire them, the beliefs surrounding auroras are polarized between positive and negative associations, as precursors of royal births on one hand, and of war and famine on the other. Northern Lights Legends from Around the World from the Northern Lights holiday experts - the aurora zone.

Login; Enquire; Our other brands. Activities Abroad; (The Southern Lights) and watched in awe as their gods danced overhead. North America.

many North American tribes or people evolved their own myths. The term Aurora Borealis loosely translated means “Dawn of the North” and was derived from the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas. Green is the characteristic color of the auroras.

Don’t Let a Aurora Borealis Fear Keep You From Living Your Life. If just thinking it causes you to start to feel the fear, it’s time you did something about it.